Angel 5x16 - Shells (Fred)

[butterfly]

All tv is about show and tell - they show you some things, tell you other things. Most of the time, the show and tell mesh, but when they don't - I go with what is shown, not what is told.

In the beginning of Buffy, we were told that vampires were nothing but monsters. That nothing of the original person was in there. Yet in the first two-parter, WttH/tH, we are shown something very different - Jesse as a vampire is not just a monster, he's a Jesse-monster. He's still Jesse, but without a conscience and with a bloodlust. He still wants Cordy, he wants Xander to get why being vamped is cool. He is still Jesse, but sans soul.

And as we've learned since then, it is what we were shown that was true, not what we were told.

So, we're being told that Fred is gone, that her soul was destroyed.

Really? Wow, then how is it that Illyria has Fred's memories? How is it that Illyria goes to Wes when it wants guidance? Illyria is very curious and very practical - two traits that Fred has always possessed. Fred -- fragments of Fred -- they linger in Illyria. What is it that Ghost!Darla said -- a person's memory and feelings make them who they are (a soul, I think, makes them what they are).

They're telling us that Fred is gone, but they're showing us that she isn't. And in ME's track record, what is shown is much more reliable. I wouldn't count Fred out just yet.

Comments

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

My thoughts are that the Illyria was conscious inside of Fred's body during her last moments - recording Fred's last actions and thoughts. Hence, why she chose to speak some of Fred's last words instead of something she said a few weeks ago.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Except she didn't remember Fred at all until after Wes hit her with the axe, which is interesting. And then, after, she did. "Now I remember."